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Game Of Thrones -season 7

The seventh and penultimate season of the fantasy drama television series Game of Thrones premiered on HBO on July 16, 2017, and concluded on August 27, 2017. Unlike previous seasons that consisted of ten episodes each, the seventh season consisted of only seven. Like the previous season, it largely consisted of original content not found in George R. R. Martin's A Song of Ice and Fire series, while also incorporating material Martin revealed to showrunners about the upcoming novels in the series. The series was adapted for television by David Benioff and D. B. Weiss.

The penultimate season focuses primarily on the convergence of the show's main plotlines in preparation for the final season. Daenerys Targaryen arrives in Westeros with her army and three dragons and wages war against the Lannisters while Jon Snow continues his efforts to find ways to defeat the Army of the Dead. He forges an alliance with Daenerys in an attempt to unite their forces against the White Walker army.

Daenerys sends the Dornishmen with Yara's fleet to Sunspear and the Unsullied to Casterly Rock, deciding to place King's Landing under siege. She questions Varys' loyalty and threatens to burn him alive if he ever betrays her. Melisandre arrives and encourages her to invite Jon Snow to Dragonstone. Grey Worm and Missandei consummate their relationship. Cersei gathers several lords, asking for their fealties and elevating Randyll Tarly as Warden of the South. Qyburn shows Cersei a prototype ballista capable of harming dragons. Arya meets with Hot Pie and learns of Jon's ascension to King in the North, halting plans to travel to King's Landing and instead setting course for Winterfell. After receiving Samwell's letter, Jon leaves for Dragonstone in hopes of convincing Daenerys to support the fight against the White Walkers. He leaves Sansa in charge and aggressively warns Littlefinger to keep his distance. Samwell applies a forbidden treatment on Jorah's greyscale infection. Euron's fleet attacks Yara's. Obara and Nymeria are killed, while Ellaria, Tyene, and Yara are captured. Theon shows flashes of his time as Reek, hesitating to challenge Euron before fleeing the carnage by jumping into the sea.

Jon arrives at Dragonstone. Daenerys demands his fealty. He refuses and focuses instead on convincing her to fight the Army of the Dead. Following Tyrion's advice, Daenerys grants Jon access to the island's dragonglass. Melisandre hides her presence from Jon and leaves for Volantis. Bran arrives at Winterfell and reveals his newfound role as the Three-Eyed Raven to Sansa. In King's Landing, Euron returns with Ellaria and Tyene as a gift for Cersei, who promises to marry him after the war is won. She also awards him co-control of her military alongside Jaime. Cersei administers to Tyene the same poison used to kill Myrcella, forcing Ellaria to watch her daughter's impending death. In Oldtown, a healed Jorah leaves to find Daenerys. Ebrose forgives Samwell. Grey Worm and the Unsullied attack Casterly Rock, only to find it mostly abandoned. Jaime led most of the Lannister forces in an attack on Highgarden, while Euron's fleet ambushes and destroys the Unsullied's ships. The Lannister forces overwhelm Olenna's army. Jaime offers Olenna a quick and painless death by poison. After drinking it, she confesses to poisoning Joffrey.

Arya returns to Winterfell, where she reunites with Sansa and spars with Brienne, both of whom are unnerved by her exceptional fighting skills. Bran unemotionally bids farewell to Meera, divulging that he is no longer the boy she accompanied through the North. Littlefinger presents Bran with the dagger that was previously used in his attempted assassination. Cersei assures the Iron Bank a full return on their investment, as a train carrying gold from Highgarden is on its way to King's Landing. In a cave filled with dragonglass, Jon reveals ancient paintings to Daenerys depicting the First Men and the Children of the Forest joining forces against the undead. Later, Daenerys learns of the sacking of Highgarden by Lannister forces and realizes her attack on Casterly Rock was a distraction. Despite Tyrion's protests, she decides to take action. Led by Daenerys riding Drogon, the Dothraki cavalry catches the Lannister army by surprise and decimate or capture its remaining forces. Drogon is wounded during the fight by a spear fired from the scorpion ballista. Jaime's desperate charge on horseback at a vulnerable Daenerys is thwarted by Drogon spewing fire. Bronn tackles Jaime into the river in time to save him.

Jaime and Bronn return to King's Landing. Daenerys offers the remnants of the Lannister army the choice to either pledge fealty to her or die. Against Tyrion's advice, she has Drogon burn Randyll and Dickon Tarly, who refused to submit. Jorah arrives at Dragonstone and reunites with Daenerys. Maester Wolkan alerts Jon and the Citadel about the approaching wights to Eastwatch. Jon decides to travel beyond the Wall and capture a wight in order to convince Cersei for a temporary alliance. Davos smuggles Tyrion inside King's Landing, where he secretly meets with Jaime and offers an armistice, which Cersei accepts, informing Jaime that she is pregnant. Davos rendezvous with Gendry and returns him to Dragonstone. With the Citadel ignoring Wolkan's letter, Samwell steals several books and leaves with Gilly and Little Sam. At Winterfell, Littlefinger notices Arya spying on him and leads her to take a letter written by Sansa from his room. Jon, Jorah, and Gendry, joined by the Hound, the Brotherhood, and a group of the Free Folk led by Tormund, leave Eastwatch and pass the Wall, intending to capture a wight as evidence for Cersei that the Army of the Dead is real.

At Winterfell, Littlefinger plots to isolate Sansa. Tensions between Arya and Sansa grow following Arya's discovery of the letter Sansa sent as a child begging for Robb's fealty to Joffrey. Sansa discovers Arya's bag of faces she took from Braavos. At Dragonstone, Tyrion counsels Daenerys about her upcoming negotiations with Cersei. Beyond the Wall, Jon leads a raiding party to capture a wight to bring South as evidence of the White Walkers' existence. After successfully capturing one, the group is besieged by the White Walker army. Jon has Gendry return to Eastwatch and send a raven to Daenerys to request her help. Thoros freezes to death overnight. Daenerys arrives and saves the group from the wights, with the help of her dragons. The Night King, leader of the White Walkers, throws an ice spear at Viserion, one of Daenerys' dragons, and kills it. Daenerys flies off, along with the raiding party, but is unable to save Jon. Benjen Stark intervenes and sacrifices himself to allow Jon to escape. When Jon and Daenerys are reunited, Jon pledges himself and the North to Daenerys as Queen. The Night King resurrects Viserion, making the dragon a part of his army.

At King's Landing, the wight is presented to the Lannisters. Cersei demands Jon's neutrality in the Great War, but he upholds his oath to Daenerys, provoking Cersei to leave. Tyrion meets privately with Cersei, apparently persuading her to ally. Cersei later reveals to Jaime that she was lying and instead intends to use the Golden Company of Braavos to secure her hold on Westeros. Disgusted, Jaime deserts her and rides north. Bound for White Harbor, Jon and Daenerys make love. At Dragonstone, Theon earns the respect of his men and leads them to rescue Yara. At Winterfell, Littlefinger sows dissent using Arya's threatening demeanor with Sansa, leading to a trial. To his surprise, Littlefinger finds himself accused of murder, treason and betryal, with Bran confirming the extent of his crimes. Deserted by the Lord of the Vale, Littlefinger is executed by Arya. Samwell arrives at Winterfell and meets with Bran, where both discuss Jon's parentage. They realise Jon is a trueborn Targaryen named Aegon and legitimate heir to the Iron Throne, as his parents — Rhaegar Targaryen and Lyanna Stark — married in secret. At Eastwatch, the Night King rides the undead dragon Viserion and collapses a section of the Wall with blue dragon fire, allowing the Army of the Dead to march through.

In flashbacks

Production

Crew

Series creators and executive producers David Benioff and D. B. Weiss serve as showrunners for the seventh season. The directors for the seventh season are Jeremy Podeswa (episodes 1 and 7), Mark Mylod (episodes 2 and 3), Matt Shakman (episodes 4 and 5) and Alan Taylor (episode 6). This marks Taylor's return to the series after an absence since the second season. Shakman is a first-time Game of Thrones director, with the rest each having directed multiple episodes in previous seasons.[36]Michele Clapton returned to the show as costume designer, after spending some time away from the show in the sixth season. She previously worked on the show for the first five seasons, as well as the end of the sixth season.[36]

Writing

The seventh season contains original material not found in the A Song of Ice and Fire series.[37][needs update] Some of the show's sixth season also consists of material revealed to the writers of the television series during discussions with Martin.[38]

Filming

The shores of Gaztelugatxe were used as a location for filming Season 7.

Filming began on August 31, 2016, at Titanic Studios in Belfast,[39] and ended in February 2017.[40][41][42] In an interview with the showrunners, it was announced that the filming of the seventh season would be delayed until later in the year due to necessary weather conditions for filming. The showrunners stated "We're starting a bit later because, you know, at the end of this season, winter is here, and that means that sunny weather doesn't really serve our purposes any more. We kind of pushed everything down the line so we could get some grim, gray weather even in the sunnier places that we shoot."[43]

Casting

Deadline reported on June 21, 2016, that the five main cast members, Peter Dinklage, Nikolaj Coster-Waldau, Lena Headey, Emilia Clarke, and Kit Harington had been in contract negotiations for the final two seasons. It was reported that the cast members have increased their salary to $500,000 per episode for the seventh and eighth season.[53][54] It was later reported that the actors had gone through a renegotiation, for which they had increased their salary to $1.1 million per episode for the last two seasons.[55]

Episodes

On April 21, 2016, HBO officially ordered the seventh season of Game of Thrones, just three days prior to the premiere of the show's sixth season.[60] In a June 2016 interview with Variety, co-creators David Benioff and D. B. Weiss revealed the seventh season would likely consist of fewer episodes, stating at the time of the interview that they were "down to our final 13 episodes after this season. We're heading into the final lap."[61][62] Director Jack Bender, who worked on the show's sixth season, said that the seventh season would consist of seven episodes.[63] Benioff and Weiss stated that they were unable to produce 10 episodes in the show's usual 12 to 14 month time frame, as Weiss said "It's crossing out of a television schedule into more of a mid-range movie schedule."[61] HBO confirmed on July 18, 2016, that the seventh season would consist of seven episodes, and would premiere later than usual in mid-2017 because of the later filming schedule.[4] Later it was confirmed that the season would debut on July 16.[64] The seventh season of the series includes its longest episode, with the finale running for 81 minutes.[65] The penultimate episode also runs for 71 minutes – around 16 minutes longer than an average Game of Thrones episode. The first five episodes mostly run longer than average (55 minutes), at 59, 59, 63, 50, and 59 minutes respectively.[66] The previous longest episode in the series was the sixth-season finale, "The Winds of Winter", which ran for 69 minutes.[65]

Music

Reception

Critical response

On Metacritic, the season (based on the first episode) has a score of 77 out of 100 based on 12 reviews, indicating "generally favorable reviews".[68] On Rotten Tomatoes, the seventh season has a 94% approval rating from 46 critics with an average rating of 8.31 out of 10, and a 92% average episode score, with the site's consensus reading, "After a year-long wait, Game of Thrones roars back with powerful storytelling and a focused interest in its central characters—particularly the female ones."[69]

Ratings

The series premiere surpassed 30 million viewers across all of the network's domestic platforms weeks after its release. The show's numbers continued to climb in other countries as well. In the UK, the premiere got up to 4.7 million viewers after seven days, setting a new record for Sky Atlantic. Compared to the previous season, HBO Asia saw an increases of between 24 percent to 50 percent. HBO Latin America saw a record viewership in the region, with a 29 percent climb. In Germany, the show went up 210 percent, in Russia it climbed 40 percent and in Italy it saw a 61 percent increase.[70] In the United States, the finale was watched by 12.1 million viewers on its first airing on television, and 16.5 million when viewings on HBO Now and HBO Go apps are included. Over the season, the viewer numbers averaged at over 30 million per episode across all platforms.[71]

Release

Broadcast

The season was simulcast around the world by HBO and its broadcast partners in 186 countries. In some countries, it aired the day after its first release.[70]

Marketing

On July 23, 2016, a teaser production trailer was released by HBO at the 2016 San Diego Comic-Con. The trailer mostly consisted of voice overs, and shots of crew members creating sets and props.[112] The first footage from the season was revealed in a new promotional video released by HBO highlighting its new and returning original shows for the coming year on November 28, 2016, showcasing Jon Snow, Sansa Stark and Arya Stark.[113][114]

On March 1, 2017, HBO and Game of Thrones teamed up with Major League Baseball (MLB) for a cross-promotional partnership. At least 19 individual teams participated in this promotion.[115] On March 8, 2017, HBO released the first promotional poster for the season ahead of the SXSW Festival in Austin, Texas, which teases the battle of "ice vs. fire". Showrunners Benioff and Weiss also spoke at the event, along with fellow cast members Sophie Turner and Maisie Williams.[116]

On March 9, 2017, HBO hosted a live stream on the Game of Thrones Facebook page that revealed the premiere date for the seventh season as being July 16, 2017. It was accompanied by a teaser trailer.[2] On March 30, 2017, the first official promo for the show was released, highlighting the thrones of Daenerys Targaryen, Jon Snow, and Cersei Lannister.[117] On April 20, 2017, HBO released 15 official photos shot during the season.[118] On May 22, 2017, HBO released several new photos from the new season.[119] On May 23, 2017, HBO released the official posters featuring the Night King.[120] The first official trailer for season 7 was released on May 24, 2017.[27] The trailer set a world record for being the most viewed show trailer ever, being viewed 61 million times across digital platforms, in the first 24 hours.[121] The second official trailer was released on June 21, 2017.[26] The season premiere was screened at the Walt Disney Concert Hall in Los Angeles on July 12, 2017.[122]

Home media

Illegal distribution

The season premiere was pirated 90 million times in the first three days after it aired.[125] On August 4, 2017, it was reported that, two days before its original broadcast, the fourth episode of the season was leaked online from Star India, one of HBO's international network partners.[126] The leaked copy has the "for internal viewing only" watermark. On July 31, 2017, due to a security breach, HBO was the victim of 1.5 terabytes of stolen data.[127] However, "this was not related to this episode leak", according to The Verge.[128] On August 16, 2017, four days before its intended release, it was reported that HBO Spain and HBO Nordic accidentally allowed the sixth episode of the series on-demand viewing for one hour before being removed.[129]

Data from piracy monitoring firm MUSO indicates that season seven was pirated more than one billion times mostly by unauthorized streaming, with torrent and direct downloads accounting for about 15 percent of this piracy. On average, each episode is estimated to have been pirated 140 million times,[130] making Game of Thrones the most-pirated television series in 2017.[131]